Amazon releases Instant Pickup

Amazon’s newest service aims to reduce the delivery time for products from 2-day shipping to about 2 minutes. As of now, Instant Pickup is only available at five colleges around the country but plans to expand. This aims to enter the convenience store market that Amazon has yet to attack because when you go into a convenience store, you want to get what you need and leave; not wait a couple of days. There are 22 locations across the United States where you can arrange same-day pickup for your items but that isn’t always soon enough. There is also a program in some locations called Prime Now, that promises orders in under an hour.

The college campuses that have Instant Pickup available are located in Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, Atlanta, Georgia, College Park, Maryland, and Columbus, Ohio. It will be interesting to see the impact that Instant Pickup has on drug stores and other convenience stores or if it will be more difficult for people to break their lifelong habits than Amazon has hoped.

Amazon Instant Pickup probably won’t work if you want a drink or a pack of gum but for harder to find items like a phone charger or headphones, it may be beneficial. The few minute wait is likely quicker than driving to a Best Buy, especially if you are a college student on a campus and don’t have easy access to transportation.

If you are an Amazon seller and require the assistance of an experienced Certified Public Accountant, please contact Ebiz Accounting for an initial consultation.